His bags were packed, his flat rented, a New York apartment awaited.
But the night before his big move, Tam Mutu got a phone call: “Rebecca,” the financially troubled musical in which the Turkish-Italian-Brit was to make his Broadway debut, was “postponed.”
As the actor recalls it, “I remember sinking into my boxes and having a little cry.”
Yet life goes on. Just days after “Rebecca” collapsed, Mutu won the role of Javert in London’s “Les Miz.”
Three years and several roles later, he’s finally made it to Broadway, this time as the tormented lead in “Doctor Zhivago.”
Opening Tuesday, the musical gives Mutu a chance to show what director Des McAnuff calls “a powerful singing voice and indelible charm.”
Indeed, McAnuff says, if he were ever to cast a James Bond flick, this 36-year-old would be his 007.
Over blinis at the Russian Tea Room, Mutu pours on the charm as easily as he does tea. He grew up in Hastings, England, an avid soccer player until age 16, when he joined a theater group, played a shop boy in “Half a Sixpence” and never looked back.
With his leading-man looks (cleft chin, Clark Gable eyes) and a voice that flits easily between tenor and baritone, he’s worked steadily since.
The going wasn’t always smooth. “Love Never Dies,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lugubrious “Phantom of the Opera” sequel, was nicknamed “Paint Never Dries,” a reference that makes Mutu wince.
He and his leading lady, Sierra Boggess — Broadway’s original Little Mermaid — became engaged during the run, but broke up two years later.
“We had a nice time together,” Mutu says, “but it was just one of those things.” (Boggess, now starring in “It Shoulda Been You,” had no comment.)
For now, Mutu’s just happy to play the poetic Zhivago. He recalls watching the 1965 film with his mom, who called star Omar Sharif “quite dishy.” In that respect, Mutu fills Sharif’s Cossack hat very well.